Paul Bibby is managing partner of North West law firm MSB Solicitors, which has three Liverpool offices – including newly relocated city centre headquarters at No 4 St. Paul’s Square in the heart of the city’s commercial district.

MSB is a full service practice offering services and advice on a range of matters from residential and commercial property, commercial litigation, family, wills & probate, personal injury and serious fraud.

This year, the firm was ranked top in the city region for crime in the Legal 500 and was praised for its "bright and hardworking lawyers" and "razor-sharp" leadership from partner Sean Sexton, who co-founded MSB with Paul in 1988.

Paul Bibby’s approach to effective leadership is to value your team and make them a part of your vision for the future.

He explained: “By bringing your staff into the picture, encouraging their personal and professional development and making them feel valued you can build and army of your keenest ambassadors.

“Earlier this year we took on our 100th employee having never in our history made a member of staff redundant.

“And it extends to our clients too. Keeping good relationships and being great at what we do has helped us to forge a network of loyal clients and strategic partners who have supported us as we have grown. Of that, I am immensely proud.”

MSB made headlines this week for demonstrating progressive policies to support women in the workplace, which is particularly fitting as The Chancellor has pledged £5m to help mothers returning to work after career breaks.

Returnships – as they have been dubbed by the Government – are certainly not uncommon at MSB. In the last four years, 20 babies have been born within the firm with every new mother successfully returning to work.

MSB announced five new partners last month – three of those are women and two of those have two children under the age of four.

All of this is made possible by the implementation of support structures and flexible ways of working that enable all members of MSB's team to progress and achieve their potential.

In fact, MSB is bucking the trend in recruitment and retention of female staff, something which has long been a concern within the legal sector – it now boasts an equal-gender partnership and more than 80% of their total workforce are women.

Paul says: “We consider ourselves to be visionary and a firm at the forefront of bringing about change within the legal profession.

“That is one of the many reasons we are proud to be members of The Chamber.

“Our relationship with the chamber not only brings us closer to a number of similarly forward-thinking businesses, but allows us to be part of a conversation about how we can think differently and work collaboratively to bring about positive change for the greater good of the city region and bolster our business community.

“We have developed a number of key relationships through our involvement with the chamber and have keenly supported the work they do around skills, learning and apprenticeships.

“Only recently, we were pleased to attend a careers day at Archbishop Blanch organised by Young Chamber and recruited 16-year-old Daisy Cooper, who will join us for work experience this spring.

“We’re committed to supporting young people like Daisy, who are serious and passionate about exploring a career in law and are pleased that our relationship with the chamber brings us closer to them.”